Everything Counts

AM: 12.6 miles on Monroe your boat with Dave, Ben, Jared, Matt, and Tim, avg pace 7:13/mile.

PM: 5.4 miles around South Weber with some laps at Central Park on the grass, avg pace 7:10/mile. Lower left calf/achilles flared up on the run a bit.

AM: 30 minutes walking on the treadmill at 9% incline, because my calf was too sore to run on.

PM: 8.55 miles easy with Dave on the Centennial Trail into Riverdale and back from Uintah trailhead, avg pace 6:55/mile. Amy massaged my calf and I took some ibuprofen and it felt better this afternoon.

AM: 11.2 miles easy with Dave, Ben, and Jared on Rail, Layton Parkway, Bambergery, Canal run, avg pace 7:11/mile.

PM: 4 miles on the tready, avg pace 7:41/mile.

10.1 miles easy with Ben, Dave, and Jared, avg pace 7:25/mile. We ran in South Ogden along Combe and some laps down in Nature Park.

8 miles easy from Smith's through stadium to Gibs and out onto the canal trail and back, with Ben, Dave, Jason, Tim, and Matt, avg pace 7:57/mile.

PROVO CITY HALF MARATHON

I got up early and headed down to Provo to run the race. On my warm up my left, lower calf/achilles flared up again and really hurt coming downhill on the warmup. It hurt enough that I stopped and walked. I was very worried I wouldn't be able to race. I sat on a rock and worked/massaged the calf for about ten minutes, and then walked down and changed my shoes and dropped my bag off. Once the race started, I felt no pain at all. So, I guess I just need to really focus on keeping the muscles loose to avoid the pain I've been having this week.

The race was pretty uneventful. I was out in front and Justin Park just behind me. It stayed that way for both of us throughout the race. It was good to see Justin, he's a good man and a great runner.

I went quite easy/conservative the first two steep downhill miles and then got to work. I was probably too fast on miles 3-8, and slowed down quite a bit the last five miles as a result. I won the race in 1:06:34, the joy of winning still somewhat swallowed up in last week's failure.

After the race my stomach was killing me! I felt really sick, which I did not feel at all during the race. I felt too sick to cool down. This lasted for about five hours after the race! Not fun.

Splits: 5:04, 4:59, 5:03, 4:56, 4:50, 4:57, 5:10, 4:58, 5:09, 5:10, 5:21, 5:16, 5:19 and 4:56 pace for last bit.

AM: 12.4 miles easy in Clinton with Dave, Ben, Bryant, and Jason, avg pace 7:17/mile.

PM: 5 miles easy on the tready, watching "Last Kingdom" Season 2 on Netflix, avg pace 7:48/mile.

8.6 miles easy on the tready, avg pace 7:47/mile.

12 miles easy with Dave in Ogden, avg pace 6:53/mile. I felt pretty decent this morning.

10 miles easy with Ben in Ogden, from Kneaders up to 29th TH, along BST to Rainbow, and back on parkway, avg pace 7:59/mile. Take that 8-min guy!

Marathon pace effort for six miles in the middle of an 11.3-mile run, avg pace for the whole run, 6:31/mile. Pace for the tempo, downhill, 5:15/mile.

9.9 miles on the Indian Trail and BST, avg pace 8:04/mile with almost 2k of elevation gain.

9.4 miles easy in Clearfield/Layton with Ben, Dave, Jason, and Jared avg pace 7:25/mile.

7 slow miles in the tready, avg pace 7:59/mile. I can't run very fast at all on the treadmill in the mornings. It's always substantially slower than had I gone outside.

8.25 miles on the ORP with Ben, Dave, Ken, and Wolpert, avg pace 6:53/mile. Two miles at MP in middle at 5:26/mile. It snowed!!!!

4.8 miles easy in Central Ogden with Ben and Jared, avg pace 7:49/mile. It was a whopping 28 Degrees this morning, so pretty much typical May weather!

3 miles easy from Smith's, avg pace 7:02/mile. Picked up a dozen bagels at Einstein's after for today to carb up for tomorrow's marathon.

OGDEN MARATHON

I didn't train at all for this race. I haven't done a long run of 20 miles since October! I didn't do any long tempos or marathon pace training. I also didn't do any downhill training. But this is my hometown race and I really enjoy it and I had the free VIP entry from winning last year. So I figured I'd try to hit the podium and collect some circuit points. Ben, Bryant, and I ran the first half together in 1:13:10. At that point Bryant surged, wanting a huge negative split to attempt the course record, and Ben slowed down a bit. I kept chugging away at roughly the same pace. With my lack of marathon prep I was too scared to try anything faster, not wanting another miserable Ogden finish. I ended up with a slight negative split and finished about 80 seconds back of Bryant for 2nd place in 2:25:46. So second half in roughly 1:12:36. I felt decent the whole way. Cardio-wise the pace was a walk in the park, but the legs didn't have the full strength needed to really get after the pace. Overall, I am pleased with the result. Once I get some marathon training in, I'll be cruising this fall.

4.5 miles hiking up the Indian Trail with Ken and Ben with 1,400 feet of gain. Legs feel pretty dang good actually.

8.5 miles with Dave from Uintah Trailhead up BST to South Ogden, Nature Park, down Toll, and along Centennial Trail a bit, avg pace 7:03/mile.

4.9 mile hike up Beus Canyon with Ken and Ben, gained over 2,000 feet.

10.25 miles easy with Dave and Jared in light rain, avg pace 7:14/mile.

10.25 miles on the Indian Trail over and back from Rainbow to Ogden Canyon with Bret and Dave, avg pace 9:58/mile with 3,500 feet of elevation gain. I pushed the Ogden Canyon to Hut climb and bettered my Strava CR by 2:30.

AM: 10.3 miles from my house with 4-mile tempo down South Weber Drive, overall run pace 6:16/mile. For the tempo I ran 4:53, 5:03, 4:56, 4:49 and felt good, strong. It's been over a month since I've felt "normal", so this was a good sign.

PM: 3.7 mile hike with my family and Denver from Ogden Canyon up the Indian Trail. Evelyn is an aerobic giant for her age. She handled the trail like a boss. Hannah did well too for a 4-year old, but needed some "carrying" from time to time from uncle Denver. I carried Nora on my back and Amy carried Iris in the baby swaddler. A lot of fun.

12.7 miles with a massive crew (Dave, Jason, Bret, Taylor, Moss, Jared, Albert, and Matt) up to Sardine Peak and Ogden Canyon Overlook, avg pace 7:56/mile and 2,250 elevation gain. So much fun!

AM: 5.5 miles easy on the treadmill, I planned on more but the kids woke up and diapers needed changing and babies needed feeding etc. Hopefully more running this afternoon.

PM: 6 miles after work, avg pace 6:37/mile.

WORKOUT: 20-MIN TEMPO, 4x3:00, 4x1:30

I met Ben, Dave, Jared, and Ken at Ken's office. We warmed up to Beus TH and then I ran my workout. 5 minutes rest between each phases of the workout and one to one rest in between the timed reps. I hit 5:07/mile on the tempo, 4:52/mile on the 3:00s, and 4:52/mile on the 1:30s. The route was rolling net downhill.